A couple of weeks ago, we posted the OSI and FSF's joint position
statement to the US Department of Justice about Novell's proposal to
sell its patents to the newly-formed CPTN Holdings. Yesterday we
learned that the DOJ has sent a "Second Letter" to both companies,
asking them to provide more information about the deal.

Brett Smith is the lead compliance engineer in the Free Software Foundation's GPL compliance lab. He helped coordinated the GPLv3 drafting process and has handled enforcement cases against Apple's App Store.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) and Free Software Foundation (FSF) have sent a joint position statement to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), urging it to scrutinize Novell's proposal to sell patents
to the newly-formed CPTN Holdings. Both organizations believe that CPTN Holdings may use these patents to attack free, libre, and open source (FLOSS) software. The full text of the statement follows.

We've signed up as a supporter of the WebM Project, and we encourage other foundations and organizations to join us—write to webmaster@webmproject.org to learn how. Today, we're also urging Web site operators to distribute videos in the WebM format, and abandon H.264

Rémi Denis-Courmont is one of the primary developers of the VLC media
player, which is free software and distributed under the GPL. Earlier
this week, he wrote to Apple to complain that his work was being
distributed through their App Store, under terms that contradict the
GPL's conditions and prohibit users from sharing the program.

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, October 14, 2010 -- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced today that it has published an initial set of criteria for endorsing computers and other devices. The FSF seeks both to obtain feedback on the criteria, and raise interest in the program among hardware manufacturers. Ultimately, the FSF plans to promote an endorsement mark to be carried on products that the FSF endorses.

Last week, we put out an action item asking people to write to the
USPTO, and explain to them why software should not be eligible for
patents under their forthcoming post-Bilski guidance. To answer the
call, you all sent in more than 450 letters, offering the USPTO all
kinds of legal and practical reasons why they should stop issuing
software patents. This is a tremendous response, and we're very
grateful to you all for participating. Thank you very much!